During his recent inauguration speech, President Barrack Obama encouraged America's citizens to engage in greater service to their communities.  I hope that more people accept the call to service and participate in volunteer work.  I have spent a lifetime involved in volunteer work; I've either volunteered or worked with volunteers since I was sixteen years old.  Although vounteering can take a considerable amount of time and it occasionally stretches my financial resources, I am committed to volunteering because I know that I am contributing and making a difference in my community, I am meeting people and doing new things, and I am having fun while learning new skills.

Many service-oriented organizations are non-profit, so they struggle because they have limited financial and human resources.  Volunteers make a difference because they help the organization to stretch its budget.  The budget gets a boost because volunteers tend to be an organization's most reliable donors.  They also provide services without receiving compensation or employee benefits.  The staff gets a boost because volunteers provide staffing for special events and for general office work, which frees the staff members to do more important tasks.  I know that my efforts make a difference because they help the organization to achieve more than it could without my help.  Volunteers' contributions are multiplied because the organization can serve more people and accomplish more in the community.

Not all volunteering is selfless.  There are personal rewards to being in service.  By volunteering, I have the opportunity to meet new people and to participate in events that I wouldn't have been involved with by staying home and watching television.  I've made life-long friends by working side-by-side with people who share similar ideals and interests.  Serving my community also provides me with a way to network, allowing me to demonstrate my skills and abilities to people who have later invited me to work for their companies.  It's unlikely that I would have met any of these people in the course of my everyday job.  I've also been involved in some fun and interesting events that I couldn't afford to attend as a participant, such as the Napa Wine Auction.

Volunteering also gives me a chance to live my "Walter Mitty" life, whil also enhancing my skills in an area of interest.  I used to be a broadcast journalist, and I still have an interest in broadcasting and in supporting free speech.  Therefore, I give time to the local PBS and NPR affiliate, KRCB TV and FM.  Back when I was on the air professionally, we edited audio tape with razor blades, grease pens, and scotch tape.  As a volunteer at KRCB, I've had the opportunity to learn how to use digital equipment, and I've had the chance to direct a live television program.  I hope for a time when I can return to professional broadcasting.  Volunteering at KRCB keeps my skills fresh, provides me with visibility, and keeps my resume current.  In the meantime, I'm having fun doing something that I enjoy while supporting my community through supporting free speech and producing alternative programming.

Our nation is in an era of limited resources, but it's also an era in which much work needs to be done.  Volunteering is one way to answer the President's call.  Being a volunteer is a win-win endeavor; I make a difference and receive personal benefits.  Volunteering is a fun and effective way to provide service to the community, meet new people and expand personal horizons, and to learn skills that can translate into opportunities in the work world.

Karen E. Kelsay,  Feb. 7, 2009.  All rights reserved.

In the time of your life, live -- so that in good time, there shall be no ugliness of death for yourself or for any life your life touches.

Seek goodness everywhere, and when it is found, bring it out of its hiding-place and let it be free and unashamed.

Place in matter and in flesh the least of the values, for these are things that hold death and must pass away.  Discover in all things that which shines and is beyond corruption.

Encourage virtue in whatever heart it may have been driven into secrecy and sorrow by the shame and terror of the world.

Ignore the obvious, for it is unworthy of the clear eye and the kindly heart.

Be the inferior of no man, nor of any man be the superior.  Remember that every man is a variation of yourself.  No man's guilt is yours nor is any man's innocence a thing apart.

Despise evil and ungodliness, but not men of ungodliness or evil.  These, understand.

Have no shame in being kindly and gentle, but if the time comes in the time of your life to kill, kill and have no regret.

In the time of your life, live -- so that in that wonderous time, you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile at the infinite delight and mystery of it.   
-- William Saroyan, preface to The Time of Your Life.